'Signal' explores the nature of senseless violence
A down and dirty, old-school independent horror film, "The Signal" constantly keeps us off balance and plies the screen with plenty of gore and abrupt violence.
Before the end, when it spirals off into talky, thematic overkill, this triptych of terror delivers the willies wrapped in a cautionary tale about the dangers of trusting technology.
"The Signal" comes along at a bad time to release a horror film about random, willful violence -- in the wake of the shooting spree at Northern Illinois University.
TV and print journalists have constantly referred to the spree as an act of "senseless violence." That's because most journalists merely dismiss attacks they don't instantly understand as "senseless." They're wrong.
Violent acts always make sense. At least to those committing the violent acts.
This is why "The Signal" intrigued me. It addresses the erroneously rational nature of violence in a horror film context.
In a generic, warm-climate city with the heavy-handed name of Terminus, all media outlets -- televisions, radios, computers, phones -- are suddenly jammed with a mysterious, high-pitched signal during New Year's Eve.
Mya (Anessa Ramsey) barely gets home from her affair with handsome Ben (Justin Welborn) when her insanely possessive hubby Lewis (A.J. Bowen) grills her about her "night out" with her co-workers. Lewis has two friends over helping him fix his jammed TV signal.
Minutes later, Lewis bludgeons one of them to death with a baseball bat. Mya escapes, but discovers the whole apartment building has gone crazy with neighbors savagely killing neighbors.
"It looks like chaos!" says Ron (Sahr Ngaujah), a surviving neighbor. "But it's rational. They know what they're doing! They think it makes sense, but it doesn't make any sense!"
Whatever the signal is (we never know), it apparently gives people a reason -- or the facsimile of reason -- for their "rational behavior to give way to primordial action" as one man puts it.
Mya is less afraid of the "crazies" than of her hubby Lewis, who continues to track her. We think he's been affected by the signal. We're wrong. Lewis is consumed by old-fashioned jealous rage, and that proves to be a far more potent "reason" for violence and cruelty.
We get bits drilled into a skull. Screws driven into an arm. Hammers smashed into a head. Bullets pumped in the chest. Hedge trimmers jabbed in the throat. Heads getting smashed way, way too many times. You get the idea.
"The Signal" has three chapters, each directed and written by a different filmmaker. Chapter 1, from David Bruckner, feels like a vintage 1970s David Cronenberg horror film oozing paranoia and shock. Part 2, from Jacob Gentry, flirts with the overt black comedy of "Shaun of the Dead." Part 3, from Dan Bush, employs the hallucinogenic wackiness of "Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn."
Surprisingly, these chapters blend together until the movie peters out with a protracted, overstated ending.
The beginning, however, affectionately imitates a vintage, low-budget, 1970s horror tale (think "Texas Chainsaw Massacre") that Ben watches on TV just before the broadcast gets jammed.
Note: This cheesy opening sequence has been cannibalized from Gentry's award-winning short, "The Hap Hapgood Story."
"The Signal"
3 stars
Starring: Justin Welborn, Anessa Ramsey, Scott Poythress, Cheri Christian
Directed by: David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry and Dan Bush.
Other: A Magnolia Pictures release. Rated R (extreme violence, language, nudity) Running time: 101 minutes.